Burger King Kingdom

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The Burger King Kingdom was the name of Burger King's answer to McDonaldland during the mid-1970s. In the late-1980s, the Burger King Kingdom characters were largely phased out.

1 Characters
2 Return of the King
3 NFL commercials
4 Video Games
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Characters

The Burger King: A bearded king that ruled the Burger King Kingdom
Sir Shakes-A-Lot: A knight with a craving for milkshakes
The Burger Thing: A large hamburger puppet
The Duke of Doubt: The Burger King's arch-nemesis
The Wizard of Fries: A robot powered by french fries

[edit] Return of the King

In 2004, the Burger King, now known as "The King" to tell the difference between the mascot and the restaurant, returned in a series of ads for Burger King. The King has been used mainly in a form similar to a movie monster in recent times. The ads quickly caught on with the public and The King has since become very popular.

On the Internet, The King is something of a fad with jokes about his huge head, and frequently portrayed as a fiendish villain with malicious intents (and/or accompanied with the catchphrase "Where is your God now?").

In 2005, The King appeared on several spoofs on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

In October of 2005, Burger King began to sell Halloween masks resembling The King and Burger King's viral marketing character The Subservient Chicken. There was little promotion on these masks, as www.bk.com [1] had no link to www.bkmasks.com [2] and no commercials were aired advertising them. Nonetheless, the masks quickly sold out, and some masks were also sold on eBay for hundreds of dollars. Some of the sellers on eBay also included a King robe and medallion, which the original purchase from www.bkmasks.com lacked. In October of 2006, the masks were again sold for the Halloween season.

Although the advertisements were mainly shown in North America, advertisements featuring The King surfaced on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom as well as in Germany in early January 2006. The King appeared not to catch on with the UK market and was seemingly retired there after only two brief commercials (featuring him at an ATM and as a pole dancer). However, he returned in summer 2006 as part of Burger King's Superman Returns campaign.

In July 2006, a cartoon hand-puppet version of the King resurfaced after a long absence from kid's advertising.

[edit] NFL commercials

Beginning in 2005, commercials featuring The King were created by digitally altering classic NFL game footage. The King is superimposed over players, making it appear as though the King was involved in the play. Some of the players the King has been imposed over include Steve Young, Deion Sanders, and Moe Williams (receiving a lateral pass from Randy Moss). He has also been depicted performing the Lambeau Leap and dumping Gatorade on the head of former Miami Dolphins head coach Don Shula.

In August 2006, a commercial debuted showing The King holding a press conference with his "agent", Drew Rosenhaus.

[edit] Video Games

The first appearance of The King in a video game was in the boxing game Fight Night Round 3 from EA Sports which was released on all-formats, starting with the Xbox 360 release in February 2006. The King was available as the in-ring round guy, and later on he was selectable as your boxing manager (his speciality was giving you "Heart"). There were also consistent rumors that he can be played as a boxer using a cheat code. However, some fans of the game regard his cameo as an example of excessive product placement.

In October 2006, it was announced that Burger King would be releasing three video games for the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles, starring The King and other mascots, such as the Subservient Chicken. In Pocketbike Racer, the mascots face off in a minibike race. Big Bumpin' has them trying to defeat each other in a game of bumper cars. Finally, Sneak King has players control the Burger King in a third-person perspective stealth game, where the King must sneak up behind hungry people and offer them Burger King products. Reportedly, players are graded on how elaborately they deliver the food.

The games will be available at Burger King franchises from November 19 to December 24, 2006. They are priced at $3.99 each ($4.99 Canadian) with purchase of a value meal, and have each been rated "E for Everyone" by the ESRB. [3]